104 IN MALAY FORESTS. 



madly, scattered in several directions, through the 

 forest. Though they had passed out of earshot, I 

 knew that they were still crashing their way through 

 every obstacle, and that it would be hours before 

 they recovered from even the first shock of the firing. 

 It was out of the question to follow them. 



But as the herd had wheeled about in its gallop 

 through the plain, I had seen the bull, at which I 

 had fired with my second barrel, leave the others 

 and turn away to the right, alone. I told Yusuf to 

 take the gun from Saleh and to give him the lantern 

 and luncheon case instead; and then the two men 

 followed me into the plain. We soon found marks 

 of blood. When the rest of the herd had turned, the 

 instinct of the wounded animal had led it to leave its 

 fellows, and to nurse its pain and wound in seclusion. 

 We followed the tracks in gloomy silence. As we 

 left the plain to enter the forest again, the unhappy, 

 disgraced Saleh spoke to me for the first time. 



"Pardon, but there is something that we should 

 do before we follow farther." 



I stopped, and he explained what he wanted to do. 

 Plucking a couple of leaves from the nearest tree, he 

 folded each leaf in two, and slipped one into the 

 other, so that the fold of the top leaf enclosed one 

 half of the lower leaf, and the fold of the lower leaf 

 enclosed a half of the top leaf. Then with a small 

 twig he pegged the leaves into a footprint of the 

 wounded animal, and muttered over them a charm 

 to prevent the sladang from turning to charge us. 

 The folding of the leaves is symbolical, and is the 

 expression of an idea that is common to many coun- 



